WAGMI Ventures Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Laszlo Szabo—Kiln Dec 23, 2022

Show notes

Laszlo Szabo is the Co-Founder & CEO of Kiln (www.kiln.fi). Backed by Illuminate Financial, GSR, Kraken Ventures, and more, Kiln enables enterprise-grade staking made easy. In this episode we discuss their journey from the origins of Kiln to powering 2.1% of all ETH staked (thus far), including how they uncovered insights from their earliest customers to build out their offerings, the intricacies of staking (and why staking is the first “Internet bond”), and common misunderstandings about what they enable and how it works.
Recorded Tuesday, December 13th, 2022.

Christoph Jentzsch—corpus.ventures Dec 15, 2022

Show notes

Christoph Jentzsch is the Co-Founder & CEO at corpus.ventures (www.corpus.ventures). Christoph is a theoretical physicist who was one of the earliest developers on Ethereum, creator of The DAO (known for its hack in 2016), the founder of slock.it (one of the most exciting early Ethereum projects), and now, co-founder & CEO at corpus.ventures, a venture studio building in web3.
In this episode we hear what attracted him to Ethereum during its earliest days, how he wrestled with (and worked through) his emotional state during and after The DAO Hack, his unwavering commitment to the Ethereum community and its ideals (despite public perception that the “loud” frauds and scams across web3 are representative of everyone in the space), and the exciting projects they’re building at corpus.ventures. Follow them on Twitter at @ChrJentzsch and @cventurestudio, and learn more about their work at www.corpus.ventures.
Recorded Wednesday, December 14th, 2022.

Harrison Wang—Unblocked Dec 14, 2022

Show notes

Harrison Wang is the Co-Founder & CEO at Unblocked (onunblocked.com). Backed by Tiger Global, Marcy Venture Partners (Jay-Z’s venture fund), Dapper Labs, and more, Unblocked is at the forefront of producing blockchain-backed collectibles for your favorite communities. In this episode we discuss the virtues of “digital collectibles” vs. “NFTs” (in terms of name approachability), what’s attracting major brands/artists to the digital collectible space (and how Unblocked powers that work), and what FTX means for the broader space over the coming months (in terms of funding availability and mainstream perception/adoption).

Recorded Wednesday, December 14th, 2022.

Michael Sanders—Horizon Dec 09, 2022

Show notes

Michael Sanders is the Co-Founder & Chief Storyteller at Horizon (horizon.io). Backed by Polygon, Coinbase, Take Two Interactive (the makers of the Grand Theft Auto franchise), & more, Horizon is making blockchain gaming easy, fun, and powerful for users and developers to drive the adoption of web3 and its open, transparent and symbiotic economies. With 700k+ total wallets and 3.4M+ total transactions on their Sequence platform (and exciting adoption of their Skyweaver game), Horizon is quickly establishing itself as a leader in building web3 gaming. In this episode we discuss challenges and surprises in the early days of Horizon (founded in 2017), where Michael sees web3 games and game economies going over the next 3-to-5 years, Horizon’s experience wrapping up a fundraising round in October 2022 (at a particularly precarious time in the industry), and Michael’s best generalizable advice for founders in web3 (hint: focus on the best ideas, and take care of yourself so you’re in it for the long-game).
Recorded on Thursday December 8th, 2022.

Solal Afota—Notebook Labs Dec 01, 2022

Show notes

Solal Afota is the Co-Founder of Notebook Labs (www.notebooklabs.xyz). Backed by Bain Capital Crypto & Y Combinator, Notebook Labs is working on decentralized, anonymous, and accountable identity on Web3—making web3 safer so it can become more universal. In this episode we discuss what zero-knowledge proofs enable for accountable identity (and potential near-to-medium-term applications), their unique technical and business challenges, and their experience building within Y Combinator.
Recorded on Tuesday November 29th, 2022.

Dillon Rosenblatt—Autograph Nov 17, 2022

Show notes

Dillon Rosenblatt is the Co-Founder & CEO of Autograph (co-founded alongside Tom Brady) (www.autograph.io). Backed by Kleiner Perkins and a16z, and partnered with icons like Simon Biles, Derek Jeter, and Tiger Woods, Autograph is an NFT platform that brings together the iconic brands in sports and culture to create unique digital collections. In this episode we discuss the possibilities and future of NFTs, the unique opportunity of building through the bear market, how to co-create alongside your community, and (of course) what it’s like building a company with Tom Brady.
Recorded on Thursday November 17th, 2022.

Soups Ranjan—Sardine Nov 17, 2022

Show notes

Soups Ranjan is the Co-Founder & CEO of Sardine (www.sardine.ai). Backed by a16z, Visa, and more, Sardine offers safer, faster payments by combining risk, compliance, and payment protection – all from one powerful API. In this episode we talk about his past work heading up Fraud & Risk for Coinbase (2015–2019), Sardine’s strategy of earning the opportunity to handle payments by solving fraud first, their unique flywheel from fraud prevention to better data insights, their data consortium initiative, and much more.
Recorded on Thursday November 3rd, 2022.

Andrew Webber—Digital Power Optimization Nov 17, 2022

Show notes

Andrew Webber is the Founder & CEO of Digital Power Optimization (www.digitalpoweroptimization.com). DPO helps owners and developers of power assets secure more value for their energy. They combine their expertise in cryptocurrency mining with partner expertise in power generation — offering Cryptocurrency Mining as a Service (CMaaS) to energy companies. In this episode we discuss the market dynamics of the cryptocurrency mining space, how DPO connects the dots for non-crypto-native energy industry players, and ultimately what the future of the space looks like over the next five-to-twenty years.
Recorded on Monday October 31st, 2022.

Blake West—Goldfinch Oct 29, 2022

Show notes

Blake West is the Co-Founder & CTO of Goldfinch (www.goldfinch.finance). Backed by a16z, Goldfinch is a decentralized credit protocol that allows anyone to be a lender, not just banks. With ~$100m in active loan value at time of recording, Goldfinch is the clear leader in on-chain emerging market credit – aka, crypto lending meets real-world businesses. In this episode we discuss challenges and surprises in the early days of Goldfinch, blockers to emerging market credit formation (and why obstacles exist), speculation about the possibility of a unified/global on-chain capital market, and Blake’s best generalizable advice for founders across web3 (hint: ignore the token at first).

Recorded on Friday October 28th, 2022.

Justin Gregorius—Pine Street Labs Oct 16, 2022

Show notes

Justin Gregorius is the Co-Founder & CEO of Pine Street Labs (www.pinestreetlabs.com). Backed by Polychain, Coinbase Ventures, Figment, and others, Pine Street Labs is an enterprise software company that services crypto companies, building products to help businesses use blockchains – starting with their flagship product called walletOS. In this episode we discuss their experience fundraising in the current market environment, what the future of enterprises in web3 may look like, and how they’re thinking about go-to-market for their flagship product (hint: focus on crypto-native businesses first). Recorded on Friday, October 14th, 2022.

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